Hydraulic brake mechanisms for vehicles traditionally suffer from the phenomenon of “brake fade”, i.e. a loss in braking performance caused by a build-up of heat in braking surfaces. A number of solutions have been proposed over the years to mitigate brake fade.
It is known, for example, to provide slotted, drilled or dimpled brake discs or drums to enhance heat dissipation into the air around the braking system.
The majority of brake discs and drums in road vehicles are currently made from metal, such as iron. To combat brake fade, it is also known to provide brake components, such as brake discs/drums, and/or brake pads/liners, having an enhanced thermal resistance to maintain performance at high temperatures. For example, carbon ceramic brake discs are known to offer substantial benefits in terms of performance, in both wet and dry conditions, in particular in the areas of weight, comfort, thermal stability, corrosion resistance, and durability.
While the performance of brake systems can be improved by mitigating brake fade, particularly by increasing the fade resistance of the brake components, a disadvantage of such mitigation is reduced brake temperature feedback for drivers. In high performance brake systems, e.g. those comprising features to enhance heat dissipation and/or materials offering enhanced thermal resistance, brake fade may be barely perceptible for drivers until extreme amounts of heat have built up in the system. Such extreme amounts of heat may cause the temperature of the hydraulic brake mechanism as a whole to pass a critical point at which a substantial part of the brake fluid vapourises, leading to total brake failure with little warning.
Particularly in the context of road vehicles, it is desirable for brake systems to comprise a warning mechanism for providing failure warnings.
It is an aim of the invention to provide methods and systems that can deliver a failure warning when a hydraulic brake mechanism overheats. It is also an aim of the invention to provide methods and systems for efficient estimation or monitoring of brake fluid temperatures in hydraulic brake mechanisms.